Tobi Adebayo
Kayode Salako, the husband of actress Foluke Daramola-Salako, has said that the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu is his “family benefactor.”
Salako said this in reaction to the backlash received by his wife for allegedly supporting Tinubu’s 2023 presidential bid.
Foluke and several other Nollywood actors were seen in a viral video chanting “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu” while they sat at a conference table.
The video generated outrage on social media, with Nigerians describing the actors as “sellouts.”
Defending his wife in a post on Facebook, Salako said that his wife was a card-carrying member of the APC.
His post read in part “Before APC was created, we were members of the then defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) party, which Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was the founder and the leader. All our lives, we have never done PDP or any other party before. We have always worked politically on the side of anything that has to do with Bola Tinubu school of political ideology and progressive movement.
“Politically, that is our own religious brand of the divide.
“So, Foluke and I, have always been on the side of what we believe is the right side of the political divide in Nigeria. We have always been on the side of the progressive political movement in the country. We have always been where Bola Tinubu progressive school of political ideology and movement have been in the country. We haven’t worked anywhere else before, since we’ve been involved in politics in Nigeria. We have always been where the interest of Bola Tinubu political inclinations lie since 1999.
“We are still involved in politics. We are still APC. And, right now, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the national leader of the party, except those Nigerians, who castigate people for being in the party of their choices have a viable alternative political platform for Nigerians like us.
“If it is wrong to be a member of APC or PDP, can you then give us another political platform, existing in Nigeria right now, where, at the end of the day, we won’t go and waste our reasons for involvement, time and other material resources in the participation?
“As I submit this piece, Bola Tinubu hasn’t formally come out to declare for the race of the 2023 presidential election. He is yet to do that. And, our party has not announced its presidential flag bearer still. So, those Nigerians, who are already attacking, cursing and bashing other Nigerians for who they like to associate with politically should give themselves peace. It is not yet clear to anyone, who is going to be the next president of Nigeria. Even all the political parties are not yet sure. None is sure about it!
“You cannot say because you feel offended by someone, or you no longer like him or want to hear his name for your own reason, then everybody else should hate him. That is not what the tenets of democracy is all about.
“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu might be a wrong candidate to you, but for my own reason, he might be the preferred choice.
“Besides, you do not know the relationship Asiwaju shares with my person and my immediate family.
“Foluke Daramola’s only sister and her husband work directly in Asiwaju’s system right now. That is a great impact on her family, to which I also belong as an in-law. Do you now expect Foluke or me to work against such kind of a rare benefactor and the social father of her consciousness!
“It would be hard for us to do that!
“The fact remains that, what would make Foluke and me work against the political interest of Bola Tinubu, we would rather not support or work for anybody else. Except if that person is the candidate of APC, our party.
“Apart from being a benefactor in our family, in 2016, when my buxom sister; social project associate and Nollywood actress, the late Moji Olaiya, died in Canada, and there was not enough money to fly her remains home for proper burial, it was Asiwaju who surprisingly came to the rescue.
“Bola Tinubu did not know Moji from Adams, he only heard about that need, and he paid, even much more beyond the expectations of her family, Foluke, her buxom friend and the burial committee, who went to seek the help from him, when most other Nigerians, who were contacted did not respond favourably.
“On another note, you cannot continue to blame Bola Tinubu for the fallout of the Lekki toll gate massacre of Tuesday, October 20, 2020, in Nigeria. The fact remains that, he is not the commander of the Nigerian military or that of the grand commander of the federal republic of Nigeria. Or, neither am I aware he was yet officially indicted in the report, submitted by the panel of enquiry set up by the Lagos State government to investigate the incidents of the period of the EndSARS protests.
“We were all involved in the EndSARS protests; We all played our roles and we all have been condemning that massacre incidence all along. It was bad and terrible! It is condemnable and stands condemnable!
“But, the fact is, Bola Tinubu is not the one commanding the army and neither is he the one, presiding over the affairs of Nigeria as her president. So, the official blame should, rather, go to the right quarters.
“If anybody should be blamed, it should be the president of the country as at the time and the chief of army staff. My point is, the soldiers wouldn’t have come to a state like Lagos for that kind of brutal operations against the citizens of the country, without approval from the necessary military authorities and the powers that be in Aso Rock.
Why Lagos #EndSARS panel is illegal – Festus Keyamo
“However, if Asiwaju decides to contest to be the president of Nigeria tomorrow, and our great party finds him good and suitable enough to fly its ticket, that is where you will see us, regardless of what anybody feels, or can say about it because that is our party.
“We have never been anywhere else since 1999 that we have both been involved. We were AD, AC, ACN and have been APC since 2014.
“Whoever our party is going to be supporting and presenting for the election, is who would be our candidate.
“We are both party loyalist individuals to the core! We shall continue to be loyal to the interest of the growth, progress and survival of the party, where we play our politics.
“In 2014, both of us were offered 65,000 dollars to work against the presidential candidate of our own party then, the temptation to go for the money was emotionally intense, especially for Foluke as the woman, but resolutely, I prevailed on the situation and we both rejected it. We did not accept going for the juicy option. We both remained with the candidate of our party then, which was president Muhammadu Buhari, not because the offer of working on another side of the electoral divide was an abomination, but because that was the side of Bola Tinubu progressive movement as at the time; the way of the majority of Nigerians and the right thing to do.
“I have been on the side of anything that has to do with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu all my life, and so also is Foluke Daramola Salako. That is the side of the progressive political movement in the country. That is where we have been since we have been doing politics in Nigeria.
“So, Foluke has always been involved in politics. She is not only a Nollywood practitioner. She is a card-carrying member of APC, the ruling party in the country. She has been one versatile and committed one like that, as well as myself since one month the party was formed and has been running in the country.
“I can assure Nigerians, who are attacking and abusing other people right now, that Foluke and I would work with the candidate of our party when the time comes – Any candidate whatsoever!
“We won’t work where the ‘minority are crying wolf – attacking and bashing people, who have the right to their choices, but where the majority are going to be voting to install another president through the popular wishes, votes and aspirations of the majority in Nigeria.
“Foluke and I would work with our party and it is our belief that, whoever our party would give its presidential ticket to, is who the majority of Nigerians would go with, to be the next president of Nigeria.
“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is not our own enemy. We can’t hate him!
“Apart from being the leader of our party; a prominent and illustrious son of the Yoruba nation, he is our family benefactor!”
